A while ago I wrote about the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge workshop in Helmond, NL, organized by TNO. The registration period ended just a few weeks ago and it seems they've attracted quite a few interesting teams.
Last minute changes to the competition timeline and scope have probably caused quite a lot of replanning to take place, I know it did for us at least. The following is from the GCDC website:
"After early registrations at the Intertraffic event from Latvia, Turkey and three Dutch consortia, the international dimension of the GCDC is enlarged by confirmations from Germany, UK and two consortia from Sweden. At this moment France and Poland are still investigating possibilities. Overseas Canada, United States, and Australia indicate they are still ftrying to find their way across to Helmond.
Registration period extended
Although the registration closure date for the 2011 event is officially past, as mentioned above, there is still strong interest from different parties. The process of finding the right partners and forming the needed consortia seems to take more time than expected, especially because the event has been moved ahead to march. Different parties are still considering participation, but stated to need more time to point all elements in the same direction. To allow this and to provide every interested team time to realize their final ‘go’, the GCDC has decided to extend the registration period.
Participants: clash of knowledge
It looks like the first GCDC will become a real clash of knowledge. Among the registered teams we find a high number of research institutes, most of them backed with car manufacturers.
On the Dutch part 3 mayor Universities active in the field of ITS and cooperative driving are participating: Technical University Eindhoven created a partnership with TMC and Daf. Fontys Institute has teamed up with TU Twente, and HAN Institute of Automotive Engineering forms the last of the Dutch pack.Fitting into the program around the new ITS testsite known as innovITS Advance, the UK Based MIRA Research Institute, decided to join the challenge. The German research industry is represented by the Institute of Measurement and Control (MRT) from Karlsruhe University with Volkswagen Passat/ Audi Q7 vehicles. University of Latvia and Institute of Electronics and Computer Science teamed up to represent the Eastern part of Europe. To the South, Turkey is presented by Istanbul Technical University Mekar Labs that has teamed up with Fiat and Otam. Last but not least, the Northern part of Europe will put their footprint on the GCDC: Sweden joins the challenge by two consortia. A consortium by Safer, Viktoria Institute, Halmstad University is working together with Volvo Cars and Denso. The second Nothern entry is formed by the KTH Royal Institute of technology and Scania."
